Boxing Challenge: Magsayo dethrones Russell!

  Boxing's longest-reigning champion is no more as Gary Russell lost his WBC featherweight title to mandatory challenger Mark Magsayo by majority decision in Atlantic City, New Jersey Saturday night on the Showtime-televised card.

While the decision was close but not really in dispute (Magsayo won 115-113 on two cards with the dissenting at 114-114, I agreed on my card with the majority of the judges), the controversial part is the injury to the right shoulder of Russell that forced Russell to be a one-handed fighter for much of the bout.

Russell claimed he entered the bout with the injury that he suffered two weeks ago in camp and insisted that he fight through the pain anyway, Magsayo stated that he landed a punch in the third round that caused the damage, and I thought Russell's injury came in the fourth round when he winced in pain following a punch.

While the timing of Russell's shoulder issue, the courage, and talent of Russell can't be as he essentially fought one-armed and battled his way to a fight that could have easily been scored for him.

Magsayp started fast in winning the first two rounds but Russell's shoulder began to be a factor just as he was turning the tide and Magsayo, on my card, won just enough over the remainder of the fight to win on my card

Magsayo didn't dominate the fight as one would have hoped against a one-armed fighter and that alone makes a rematch appealing to me.

The reign of Gary Russell was one that was a disappointment to most boxing fans and observers and the loss of his title had the same disappointing ending with a close loss and a less than satisfying ending.

The co-feature was the fight of the evening as junior welterweight Subriel Matias avenged his only loss when Petros Ananyan was unable to answer the bell at the beginning of round ten.

Matias was far ahead on my card after nine (89-81) dominating but entertaining rounds that saw Ananyan give his all and land some shots on Matias but the Puerto Rico native was a different fighter than in their first fight and pounded Ananyan with counter shots as Ananyan walked in.

Matias landed a strong left hook late in round nine that dropped Ananyan and only the bell ringing after he got off the mat. saved him as the fight may have been ended then and there if there had been more time remaining in the round with Ananyan looking badly dazed.

The doctor/corner did the right thing and ended the fight rather than send Ananyan out to take more punishment, which was definitely the right decision.

Matias appears to be in good shape with the IBF with a fight against Jeremiah Ponce, which would be a very interesting fight between two exciting bombers, that would either be a final eliminator or could be the vacant IBF title should Josh Taylor start shedding belts after his title defense against Jack Catterall next month to move to welterweight.

In the evening's first event, late replacement Sakaria Lukas was robbed of an upset win over Tug Nyambayar in a ten-round featherweight opener.

Lukas landed a left in the eighth round that knocked down Nyambayar but was not scored as a knockdown and cost Lukas a win in the fight that was scored a draw at 96-94 for each fighter and then a 95-95 even card.

Had the knockdown been scored properly, Lukas would have gotten the decision.

In the boxing challenge, here are the current standings with the points for this week in parentheses.

Ramon Malpica 9 pts (3)

Vince Samano 8 pts (2)

TRS 6 pts (1)

Boxing Challenge: Boots Ennis shines brightly!

Welterweight Jaron "Boots" Ennis may not have been in the main event from Uncasville, Connecticut on Showtime's three-fight card, but on a night that didn't have a lot of action, it was Ennis that walked away as the evening's star.

It wasn't that Ennis disposed of veteran gatekeeper Juan Carlos Abreu in six rounds as that would have been impressive enough considering Abreu had never been stopped in his five losses to contenders such as Egid Kavaliauskas, Alexander Besputin, and Jamal James.

It was how Ennis did it as he controlled Ennis with power punches that shook the durable veteran with every punch and showing veteran poise in the fifth round.

Ennis and Abreu each landed very low punches that cause brief stoppages and warnings, but as Abreu charged in, Ennis leaned away from the incoming punch and connected with a huge uppercut that dropped Abreu with seconds remaining in the round.

Abreu rose and survived, but tried some macho tactics to unnerve Ennis at the end of the round with an attempt to make Ennis do something dumb.

Ennis verbally sparred back to Abreu but showed maturity by not getting physical.

The decision proved fruitful when Ennis quickly dropped Abreu again and continued to batter Abreu into a corner before Abreu dropped to the floor for a second time with the referee waving the fight off.

It's not often that the first fight on a show leads off our recap, but as much as that says for the other fights on the evening, it says tons for the talent of Boots Ennis.

Ennis is almost certainly a future champion, assuming his chin holds up when tested.

My biggest concern with Boots Ennis is this- A few years from now, boxing fans may be pining away for a Boots Ennis-Vergil Ortiz welterweight unification fight as they currently are for an Errol Spence-Terence Crawford matchup and they may be equally unfulfilled.

In the main event, Erickson Lubin trudged through twelve rounds to win a unanimous decision over Terrell Gausha and put himself in position for a future junior middleweight title shot against the winner of next Saturday's Jermell Charlo-Jeison Rosario title unification bout.

The positives in this one, Gausha hurt Lubin in the tenth round, and round twelve was a pretty good round with both fighters exchanging punches.

Outside of those positives, this one was quite the snoozer with Lubin winning the rounds, but looking far from the exciting bomber that was at the top of most prospect lists before his one-round knockout loss to Jermell Charlo.

Lubin could arguably say he is more effective now, but he certainly isn't half as fun to watch.

Lubin's chin questions still are a concern after being hurt badly by Gausha, who is not known as a puncher, but that's one thing that can be said for the "new" Lubin- he is protecting that chin much better than in the past.

I scored Lubin a 118-110 winner with Lubin winning the first nine rounds.

I'm not sure Lubin will fare much better in a potential Charlo rematch, but should he decide to go bomb for bomb against Rosario, the result could be a memorable encounter.

But if it is this version of Lubin that arrives for his title shot, his challenge might not be more watchable than this victory.

Tug Nyambayar won a split decision over late replacement Cobia Breedy to win an eliminator that may lead to a rematch against WBC champion Gary Russell or at least another eliminator to earn that rematch.

Nyambayar fought much like he did in his loss to Russell with a reluctance to get off punches and giving away early rounds, but salvaged the first two with knockdowns in those rounds.

Nyambayar did begin winning rounds on the last half of the fight once he began to move his hands and won on my card 115-111 (7-5 in rounds minus two knockdown points).

Despite the victory, Nyambayar didn't seem especially motivated for the fight, which is understandable with a late replacement that was unknown at the world level and I wonder about his future with his tendency to start slowly continuing to plague him.

As for Breedy, his showing was an excellent one considering his lack of experience and stepping in on late notice.

Without those early knockdowns, Breedy may have had a case for a victory, although the scorecard for Breedy was an outlandish 115-111.

That scorecard gave Breedy nine of the ten rounds remaining after being knocked down twice and for all that Breedy overcame to make a good showing, that simply was not the case.

Meanwhile, over at the Top Rank bubble on ESPN+, Jose Pedraza won a ten round unanimous decision over Javier Molina in a battle of Olympic teammates.

Pedraza puzzled Molina and left him unable to do much offensively other than desperate and ineffective charges with Pedraza hitting him over and over with the straight right.

Not much else to say for this one other than Pedraza hurting Molina badly in the final round and Pedraza attempted to put Molina away for the strong finish.

Give Molina credit for holding off Pedraza and making it to the final bell, but that's mostly what he was about to walk away with as I scored Pedraza a 99-91.

Pedraza will likely be in the scramble next year for pne of the open titles after a projection that will see the Josh Taylor-Jose Ramirez winner give up the titles to move up to welterweight.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and I each scored seven points to move the total to 114-106.

Next week will have a NINE fight entry in the challenge, so a big week will be on hand!!

Boxing Challenge: Russell retains, Rigondeaux bores.

The boxing challenge returns with a five-fight weekend with two titles on the line along with a minor title, a title eliminator and the return of a former star to the ring.

We start in Allentown, Pennsylvania with a PBC card on Showtime and the annual appearance of WBC featherweight champion Gary Russell.
Russell, who fights once a year, clicks up a victory, makes grand proclamations and then returns to the Washington area like Puff the Magic Dragon slipping into his cave to await his next year's contest, won a unanimous decision over mandatory challenger Tug Nyambayar to retain his championship.
Russell controlled the fight for the first eight rounds with those rounds being more tactical than action-filled, but Nyambayar picked up the pace in the final third of the fight, landed his best shots and forced Russell into entertaining exchanges.
The late rally wasn't close to enough for the challenger from Mongolia, who lost 116-112 on my card, which was the closest card among the three judges and Nyambayar may look back on this fight and bemoan his lack of punches that caused him to fall behind on the cards as he was effective, especially to the body, when he was offensively active.
Russell announced plans to move up two divisions to lightweight, should a hoped for, but unlikely fight with Leo Santa Cruz falls through, which seems like a pipe dream with most of the best lightweights being involved with Top Rank rather than Russell's PBC.

The co-feature saw Guillermo Rigondeaux drop to bantamweight to win another tedious split decision and pick up a minor title with a split decision over Liborio Solis.
Solis started aggressively in the first round and seemed to surprise Rigondeaux with a right hand that forced the Cuban to grab and hold on for the end of the round.
Rigondeaux then settled into his standard (read dull) style and except for a seventh-round technical knockdown that drove Solis into the ropes from a left hand and the ropes holding him up, the fight was generally lacking in action.
I saw Rigondeaux a 115-112 winner and despite the split card, I don't need to see this fight again.

On DAZN from Sheffield, England, Kell Brook returned from a ring absence and an awful albeit winning last fight against Michael Zerafa to dominate Mark DeLuca of the United States and knock DeLuca out in the seventh round in a squash match intended to make Brook shine.
This fight did that as Brook smashed DeLuca's nose in the third and scored a knockdown with a strong left hook that saw DeLuca rise just as the bell clanged.
DeLuca was hurt again in the fourth before being dropped for the count with an impressive left hook/uppercut with blood flowing furiously through his nose.
Brook mentioned a rematch with Errol Spence, which is unlikely, but the likely next step on his comeback could be against fellow Briton and Matchroom promotee Liam Smith in what could be an interesting fight with both fighters attempting to make a last stand in the sport.

In the Matchroom co-feature, Kid Galahad outboxed Claudio Marrero for the entire fight and forced Marrero's corner to stop the fight at the end of the eighth round to move into the IBF's mandatory contender position for the second time in the featherweight division.
Galahad stood on the outside, landed his jab at all and methodically drained the aggression from Marrero as he won all but the first round on my scorecard.
Galahad now qualifies for a rematch against IBF champion Josh Warrington from their fight last year that saw Warrington retain his title via split decision in a close but ugly mix of styles that will see very few looking forward to a rematch.

The final fight of the challenge saw Artem Dalakian retain his WBA flyweight title by unanimous decision over Josber Perez in Kyiv, Ukraine.
I have this fight available via YouTube, but I have yet to watch it as of this writing.

In the boxing challenge, I outscored Ramon Malpica seven to five on the week with the difference being my extra points from Gary Russell's decision win and Kell Brook's KO.
I extended my lead to 24-20 in the early part of the marathon.